sea star wasting disease

We get this question a lot. Nearly every day, visitors ask our naturalists why they can’t find sea stars in our Tide Pool Touch Tank anymore. It’s not because these animals are really good at hiding, or that we’ve forgotten to put any in the tank. Unfortunately,

Mike Doherty | Program Naturalist
If you visited the Center recently, you may have noticed an odd-looking sea star or two. That is because many of them had begun to autotomise their own arms, meaning purposefully disconnecting them from their bodies.
Sea stars are known drop limbs for a number of reasons; one being